People does not like to save anymore?

[jerryco]

Hi all,
Had encountered interesting habit which I thought to share with the forum.

So I spoke to my neighbor month ago and found she is paying monthly for Comcast $250 for package I pay $80 less! (Give or take)

I told her that all she needs to do is pick up the phone and call them to get the discount.
Everyday since then I hear same excuses , "I don't have time" , "I will do it tomorrow", "I thought calling them for last few months but never got to it" bla bla bla!

I was amazed to find out other people paying higher rates as well and don't find the time to call and reduce their monthly costs which can be hundreds of $$ per year.

What am I missing here?
What do I need to do to make them Call the service provider? (Yes it really bothers me )
Any tips how to make them raise the phone?

Thanks in advance

[bjl584]

A lot of people claim that they don't have time to make a budget either. Those people are the ones that usually end up in trouble financially.

There probably isn't anything that you can do. She needs to take the initiative.

[jerryco]

I really wanted to help her ..

[disneysteve]

What am I missing here?
What do I need to do to make them Call the service provider?

You aren't missing anything. You care. You pay attention. She doesn't. You can't fix that. You can share the information and leave it at that. It's up to her whether or not she chooses to act on that information. You've now given her the tools. You can't make her use them.

[phantom]

I don't know why your neighbor won't call, but I have a huge aversion to talking to people on the phone that would make me put off making a phone call like the one you describe. Sure, it's completely irrational and it's no excuse, but it still happens. When people ask me if I've made a certain phone call, I'll usually say I had no time. Close friends and family berate me for this, knowing I could have made time for the call if I wanted to. If there's enough at stake, I will make the call eventually, but it does take me time.

Anyway, there's probably nothing you can do to get your neighbor to call Comcast. I would just try to stop worrying about it and stop bringing it up. You did what you could by giving her the information and a reminder. If she doesn't want to act on that information, that's up to her.

[lhkorn99]

I agree with Phantom - you can more than she does and maybe she is the type of person who doesn't like confrontation - her loss.

[bUU]

I'll play devil's advocate a bit here.

There's some silly person on another website, right now, arguing vociferously that ShopDiscover is worth a lot to me. This poster is saying this without knowing me, without knowing anything about my spending habits, without knowing how much I value things like my time, my ability to choose who I want to do business with, or the other arrangements from which I benefit (if I don't buy from ShopDiscover).

I think it is very hazardous to make assumptions that the analysis we do for ourselves applies to anyone else.

Here's an easy one: We're currently making 0.85% at ING Direct. Ally Bank offers 0.90%. Does that sound like a no-brainer to you? Let's make it easier, and stipulate that in every aspect of customer service, Ally Bank is just as good as ING Direct. A no-brainer, right? Wrong. We're sticking with ING Direct. Why? It actually doesn't matter, because it is something specific to our situation that won't drive the decision one way or the other, when you're making the decision for yourself.

I want to provide another vignette for you: We had SiriusXM in our car when we bought it. The trial ran out. We read all the websites and learned about the best deal people had been getting in recent years. We called back several times following the instructions for getting this magical low rate, to no avail. They would simply not offer us that lower rate, no matter what. I don't let it dissuade me. We are living without SiriusXM now, but will still try to bargain-hunt for other things. But that's because I've got the time and talent to do it. If I was stationed overseas for six months, and it was on my spouse to do it, we wouldn't be doing those kinds of negotiations. You can see my spouse paying a physical cost from engaging in contentious negotiation, like that. Those for whom confrontation is just another day at the office may not realize that for many others, confrontation is an anathema.

And to draw a contentious conclusion from that: The confrontational nature of bargain-hunting is, itself, an unfair variable in the commercial marketplace, favoring one kind of person at the expense of another, equally valid kind, of person.

As I said, I'm playing devil's advocate here.

[wjcalderon]

I've been telling my sister off and on for the last few years that she needs to look into refinancing her mortgage.
Every time, she tells me she hasn't had time or she's leaving it up to her husband or ...
She's a grown woman - I can only make suggestions.

[disneysteve]

I'll play devil's advocate a bit here.

There's some silly person on another website, right now, arguing vociferously that ShopDiscover is worth a lot to me.

That isn't really the same thing. They are encouraging you to use a service that you don't currently use and may not have any use for. OP is speaking about how someone can save on a service they already have and use.

We have Comcast cable. Every time I've called them and complained about my bill, they have lowered it. They magically come up with some discount or bonus or package that I'm eligible for but they don't bother to tell me about until I make a simple phone call. Last time, they actually increased my service, gave me more channels, and lowered my bill in the process. The whole industry is one big scam.

[bUU]

That isn't really the same thing. They are encouraging you to use a service that you don't currently use and may not have any use for. OP is speaking about how someone can save on a service they already have and use.

Well, no that's not actually correct. I'm a Discover card holder, and the discussion is about why one might choose to close one's Discover credit card account. (My reasons revolved around the fact that the regular Cash Back bonus has been degraded badly over the last year, down to only 0.25% on the first $3000, aside from the sometimes too-narrow or too-specialized 5% categories, and the fact that you can get turned down for a new, perhaps more generous, credit card because you already have too many credit card accounts open.) So technically, ShopDiscover is a service I already have. And we cannot even say that I don't use it, since I did use it once (and found it to be more of a hassle than it was worth, since even for what I used it for I was able to get reasonably comparable discounts otherwise).

Regardless - and this is the really important part - in my case, it's just a matter of not closing an account, and switching one specific spending pattern away from (say) AMEX to Discover, via ShopDiscover. Arguably, that's less of a confrontation than going to battle with the cable company for a discount. Now I'm being a bit facetious, because I personally have no problem with doing so - I don't personally consider it a battle - but being married to someone who does, I have come to appreciate the issue in a way that I suppose those who aren't close to folks who hate that kind of engagement wouldn't have an opportunity to.